How Could a Snowstorm That Hasn’t Even Started Be Called Historic?

Jan 26, 2015

RUSH: What’s the question? (interruption) (laughing) Yeah. You know, Snerdley just asked me a question. I’ve been meaning to get to this. Folks, I really do have to — it’s not worth apologizing for. My mind’s not all the way here today, and I feel like I’m just kind of going through the motions because of the death of our friend here and colleague. Your question reminds me of something I would normally have mentioned at the beginning of the program. Snerdley says, “How in the hell can a snowstorm that hasn’t happened be historic?” And it’s a brilliant question.

You know, I started paying attention to this yesterday for reasons related to Kit’s death and getting in and out of New York. I started paying attention to this and I see “Record all-time blizzard” that is being forecast. And then I see this idiot mayor on TV telling everybody this could be, might be, likely will be the absolute worst blizzard in the history of blizzards in New York.

So I said, “Hmm, this sounds pretty cool. What’s this gonna be?” So I dug deep and I got the details. Twenty-five to 30 inches of snow, maybe three feet of snow. Worse than it’s ever been. And, you know, the usual things: don’t drive, stay home if you can, don’t go out, stock up, do everything, go empty the grocery store. In essence, it’s time to panic. So I started looking at all the different places that have weather websites, AccuWeather, everywhere, the National Weather Service, I went everywhere trying to find as much detail about this as I could. Because I can’t tell you the number of times a record or major snowstorm has been forecast this year alone. I was just trying to think last night, trying to recall a couple instances where they forecast something that’s gonna be really, really bad and it hasn’t even come close to bad, much less really, really bad.

And not just in New York, but it’s been a horrible year for forecasts. And the reason is, if I can cut to the quick, the left has corrupted everything. And just like the left has corrupted the professorette, the faculty at major institutions of higher learning, the left has populated all these bureaucracies. The Department of Commerce runs the National Weather Service. And do not believe that they’re not politicized. After Hurricane Katrina, look at the very next hurricane season, global warming was responsible for Katrina, and that meant Katrina was just the first of many that were gonna follow. And they were all gonna be bad, each one worse than the one before it. It’s just part of global warming.

There hasn’t been a major hurricane landfall in this country in 3,000 freaking days. Cat 4, Cat 5 has not happened. But part and parcel of the left taking over is, okay, you got a forecast it’s gonna rain. What do they do? Did we not have a story last week, some idiot got frostbite standing outside in the rain in the cold telling everybody it was cold. Some TV reporter got frostbite and practically lost an ear or something, reporting, telling people not to stand outside.

Part and parcel of liberalism is the Nanny State and to assume that we can’t take care of ourselves. The assumption that we don’t know what’s best for us. That we have to be told don’t drive when the roads are slick. That we have to be told, make sure you bundle up and put on extra layers if you’re gonna go out when it’s cold. And make sure you don’t shovel your snow too rapidly, could lead to a heart attack. And all these don’ts. Be sure and “don’t.” And then if you do and you suffer a heart attack, here’s what to do if you have a heart attack, and here’s how to call 911, and here’s how to clear the street for EMS to get to your house.

It’s all predicated on the fact that we are idiots and don’t know how to protect ourselves and don’t know what’s best and don’t know how to make proper judgments. Well, that’s how you get an historic snowstorm before it’s even started snowing. Everything is a crisis. To the left, everything is a crisis. It is how governments ends up controlling people. I alluded to this earlier in the program when I was talking about Scott Walker. The government has succeeded — and when I say “government,” I mean agency after agency after agency. Not just the White House, and not just Congress, House and Senate. But local government agencies and state agencies, they have succeeded somehow in portraying themselves as members of the community when they are not part of the community.

Government is not part of your community. But they have finagled that. And when they become part of the community, it gives them license and freedom to infiltrate as much of your daily life as they can, under the guise of giving you advice, under the guise of looking out for you, under the guise of trying to protect you. But whatever it is, it’s all about control. It’s the assumption that we’re all children and that’s where all of this stuff stems from. The reason why a snowstorm that hasn’t even started will be called historic is because that level of crisis fulfills the liberal need to run in and protect and control and illustrate they know best and all that. I mean, as far as the media and everything’s concerned now, everything Obama and de Blasio do is historic.

But here’s the thing about this. They’ve already started downsizing the intensity. Last night it was gonna be 25, 30 inches, maybe three feet. It was gonna be disastrous, flat-roofed homes and buildings were gonna collapse with all that weight. None of it had happened, but it was being reported as though it was imminent. Well, now I just checked and the forecast has been revised now to be 12 and 24 inches instead of 25 to 30. And the winds are now not forecast to be 65 miles an hour, but maybe 40. And I don’t think this is the first downsizing of the forecast. I don’t think it’s the last. I’ve been in New York, you’ve been there, Snerdley, in a 24, 25-inch snowstorm. The city doesn’t shut down. Anyway, that’s answer to the question. Are you glad you asked?

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: It wasn’t on my mind to do it, but there’s clear research that can be done, just this year, on the forecasts, what they’ve been and what they’ve turned out to really be, and how they’ve been overblown, how they’ve been saturated in panic. It’s all panic now. Every freaking weather forecast is panic. They’ve canceled 5,000 flights. You can’t find stuff on store shelves now. They create all this panic with all these weather forecasts. But the point is there’s no difference. A 10-inch snowstorm, they’re gonna create the same amount of panic as they will with a 30-inch snowstorm. It’s just become what happens. It’s a disservice to the public that’s being done.

People have lived through 25 inches of snow before. They’ve lived through 30 inches of snow. It’s not a death sentence. It doesn’t mean you’re not gonna be able to eat. It doesn’t mean you’re not gonna be able to get around. This is United States of America, for crying out loud. We have these things called chains. We have four-wheel-drive vehicles. It’s not going to bring everything to a screeching halt, and yet this stuff is all reported as though it’s the biggest crisis in the midst of panic, and it has an impact on people.

It creates a helplessness among people and it makes them wait around and become dependent on other people to do things. It’s not good. It does not develop manliness. Let me just put it that way. It makes everybody a bunch of chumps. But there’s no sense of proportion. There’s no distinction drawn. A 10- or 12-inch snowfall is forecast the same way as a blizzard 30-inch snowfall. They stop everything, the Drive-Bys send a reporter out to the scene to stand there and tell you how bad it’s gonna be, and then when it gets bad, they send the Drive-Bys out there to tell you how bad it is even though you can look out a window and see yourself.

I don’t know. I just think the whole thing’s insulting. But of course I’m highly attuned, and I’m highly sensitive to the ways of the media. And let’s admit it, there are billions of people who aren’t, and so it’s a different world. It’s still a great question. How in the world can you have an historic snowfall when there hasn’t been any snowfall yet? Now, it has started snowing now. But it’s nowhere near historic yet. It’s all over the news. “Historic snowfall. Historic snowfall.”

Do you realize, every nor’easter in New York is, oh, my God, it’s panic time. Every nor’easter, rain, snow, whatever it is, it’s the worst, oh, my God, we might die, oh, my God. And they just keep doing it over and over again, and it’s never as bad as they let on. Not to say it isn’t bad. I’m just telling you that there is a sense of proportion and intensity that is missing.